VPA
readies for second Online News workshop in Nov.

Once
again, the Virginia Press Association will host an Online News Workshop Nov. 12
at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.

The
workshop will be held in conjunction with the Online News Association.

Final details
on the workshop still are being worked out. However, it will have two
concurrent tracks, and several presenters have been confirmed.

The first
track will focus on the creation of so-called “Hyperlocal” sites, search-engine
optimization and the legalities of online posting. Topics for the second track
include online election coverage and data aggregation.

Each
session in the track will be around 75 minutes long.

Confirmed
presenters include Briana E. Thibeau, an attorney with the Washington firm of
Dow Lohnes PLLC; Ryan Sholin, director of news innovation for Publish2 in
Northern Virginia; and Troy Thibodeaux, of The Associated Press.

The
workshop will start at 10 a.m. and end around 3 p.m. Cost to attend is $30 per
person, which includes lunch.

More
information about the workshop agenda will be posted later this week on the VPA
Web site. In the meantime, questions should be directed to href="mailto:kimw@vpa.net">Kim Woodward at (804) 521-7574.

Longtime
Northern Neck publisher dies at 88

From
THE NORTHERN NECK NEWS

Rodney
Marshall Coggin, age 88, retired newspaper publisher in the Northern Neck, died
on Sept. 6. He lived in Warsaw.

Coggin
was widely known as the editor, owner and publisher of the weekly Northern Neck
News for 43 years, having purchased it from his grandfather, W. Y. Morgan in
1949. He sold the paper to Whitney Communications in 1992.

The
newspaper was well regarded for its county correspondents’ reports and his
“Tale Spinning” column on local characters and happenings.

He was the son of the
late Rodney Myers Coggin and Clara Morgan Coggin. Survivors include his wife
Mary Ames Coggin of Warsaw; three children, Rodney Coggin and Turner Coggin of
Richmond and Rebecca Hubert of Warsaw. He is also survived by seven grandchildren,
Bergen Elizabeth and Juergen Marshall Hubert; Morgan Ames, Mathews Jenks and
Bailey Walker Coggin; John Dos Passos and Lara Dos Passos Coggin.

Coggin attended Augusta
Military Academy and the College of William and Mary. He served for the 4th Marine
Air Wing in World War II as a dive-bomber pilot based on Samoa, Wallis,
Funafuti, Eniwetok, and Kwajalein islands in the Central Pacific. He was an
instructor and Chief of Flight in Squadron 13C for the Navy in Beeville and
Corpus Christi, Texas, after his war service, and gained press notoriety for
his solo and team precision flying demonstrations there.

He served on the vestry
of St. John’s Episcopal Church, the Richmond County Electoral Board and as a
Director of the Bank of Warsaw, later acquired by the Bank of Virginia.

Westmoreland
meetings moved to accommodate cameras

From
WESTMORELAND NEWS

Last
month, Robert Quinn was prohibited from bringing his camcorder to a public
meeting of the board of supervisors. In the three minutes of tape he gathered
at the entrance to the board's meeting room, Quinn stated his rights to video a
public meeting under the Virginia Code to no avail.

But since
then, steps have been taken towards creating a more open Westmoreland,
following the board's decision to relocate to the A.T. Johnson Alumni Museum
down the street for future meetings.

"Due
to the Freedom of Information Act, we've been advised that it is permissible
for the public to video public meetings," said Chairman Darryl Fisher,
District 1 supervisor. "In order to accommodate that, we needed to move
the meeting."

Fisher
said that videotaping inside of the George D. English Courtroom brought about
security concerns, which were raised by the presiding judge. Meeting in the
museum auditorium is a way to make everyone happy — judge, public and
government alike.

"Hopefully
this will be a way we can remedy the situation," Fisher said.

According
to a legal notice authorized by County Administrator Norm Risavi, in addition
to the Board of Supervisors, the museum will also be home to meetings of the
Industrial Development Authority, Planning Commission, Wetlands Board, Board of
Zoning Appeals and Board of Building Appeals.

Quinn, a
Mount Holly, resident and active member of the citizens’ group WECOUNT,
recently met with county administration, and said that he and the county are
now on the same page with plans to begin videotaping meetings and posting them
on the county's Web site and/or cable channel soon.

"I
wish we could have worked things out and not had to move, but I think they need
to be able to make the meetings public," Quinn said. "And not
everyone can attend [the meetings] when they have them."

Quinn
added that surrounding counties have already begun broadcasting public meetings
and noted that the Westmoreland County School Board has plans to begin doing
the same.

Quinn
recalls delivering a slideshow during a public hearing where he predicted a
more open county that seems almost prophetic now in hindsight.

"I
remember I said, 'We will fight you tooth and nail on [one county project]
because we don't agree with you, but we want to see a better Westmoreland
County; and I'm sure we’ll see some things in the future where we can work
together,'" Quinn recalled.

Fisher
said that he looks forward to the possibility of broadcasting meetings in the
future.

"That's
a work in progress, hopefully we can pull all of that together," Fisher
said.

Sign
up for VCOG conference Oct. 15-16 in Staunton

From
a news release

The
Virginia Coalition for Open Government will hold its next annual conference
Oct. 15 and 16 at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton.

The
conference on Oct. 16 will examine issues of access to government records,
meetings and proceedings. Panel topics include:

•
Judicial selection in Virginia: Election, appointment, something in between?

•
Transparency in the Obama administration: Is the reality living up to the
promise?

• FOIA
101: How do you know what to ask for, and how government can make it easier?

•
Anonymous juries: Does Virginia Supreme Court’s proposed rule hamper public
access?

Panelists
will include:

• Matt
Britton, King George County Commonwealth Attorney

• Maria
Everett, director, Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council

• Dick
Hammerstrom, local news editor, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg

• Kristie
Kane, immediate past president of a defense attorneys’ organization

• Tom
Moncure, George Mason University counsel

• Sean
Moulton, OMB Watch

• Larry
Roberts, counselor to the Governor

• Del.
Chris Saxman, R-Staunton

• Tisha
Thompson, Fox News 5, Washington, D.C.

• Anne
Weismann, Citizens for Ethics in Washington

Both
candidates for governor have also been invited.

The
conference is $35 for VCOG members, $45 for non-members and includes lunch.

A dinner
with the VCOG Board of Directors on Oct. 15 is open to the public at a cost of
$25.

FOI
awards will be presented, recognizing open-government achievements by citizens,
media and government. An after-dinner program featuring Rod Smolla, dean of
Washington & Lee University law school, and Lucy Dalglish, head of the
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, will examine the line between
campaign rhetoric and possible libel.

Click href="http://www.opengovva.org/get-involved/access-2009">here style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> to register.

For more
information, or for sponsorship and underwriting opportunities, contact href="mailto:vcog@opengovva.org">Megan Rhyne style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> at (540) 353-8264.

Cameras
in Courtroom information now streamlined

The
Virginia Press Association has streamlined into one page information about the
Cameras in the Courtroom program.

The href="http://www.vpa.net/index.php/services/article/cic-intro/">Introductory
Page explains
the program and includes a link to the Virginia Code section allowing
photographs and recording of judicial proceedings. Additionally, there are
links addressing specifics of the program, such as the types of coverage
allowed, photography rules and photo pool eligibility.

There
also is a link to the names and contact info of CIC coordinators by judicial
circuit. These coordinators act as liaisons between the press photographers and
the court when more than one media outlet requests coverage.

There
still are spots open for people to serve as CIC coordinators for their judicial
circuits. Editors and publishers should submit those candidates’ names and
contact information to Bill Atkinson style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> as soon as possible. Current CIC
coordinators also are urged to look at that page and notify VPA of any changes
in contact information.

style='mso-special-character:line-break'>

VPA
offers ‘Pay in Advance’ program for conferences

The
Virginia Press Association is launching a new initiative to encourage members
to attend its two major conferences in 2010.



The “Pay in Advance”
program will be offered to newspapers and their employees who want to invest in
their professional development opportunities at the conferences. style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>



Members who opt for the
program have a choice in how they can participate — a six-month billing
cycle or a two-payment cycle, both of which would allow members to have their
fees paid in advance of either conference. The six-month cycle would begin in
September and run through February. The two-payment plan is based on invoices
sent in November and January.



The 2010 News
Conference & Winter Meeting will be held next March at the Hotel Roanoke
& Conference Center. The Advertising Conference will be held the following
month at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel.



Members can include
conference registration fees and VPA meal functions in the Pay in Advance program.
If desired, overnight accommodations also can be included in the plan for
$135.52 per night (News Conference) or $141.25 per night (Advertising
Conference). The room rates include all taxes.

For more information
about the Pay in Advance program, contact Kim
Woodward at
(804) 521-7574.

Online
consultant will lead two VPA sessions

VPA will
offer several training sessions this year focusing on online training. The
sessions will be led by Scott Bateman, VPA’s online consultant.

Costs for
the full-day sessions are $70 for VPA members and $100 for non-members. Lunch
is included. The sessions will be held at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.

VPA is
offering a 2-for-1 attendance special. For every paid registrant a member
sends, a second attendee may come at no additional cost.

•
Sept. 24: Building a Profitable Online Newspaper (10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>

This
workshop about growing a profitable online newspaper targets publishers, GMs
and sales managers of non-daily newspapers as they finalize their budgets for
2009. It will focus directly on the major online issues they face –
building a Web business with limited resources, making the transition from
print-only profits and revenues, and making the difficult decisions about rate
cards and other needs for building an effective online business.

It will
provide useful insights from experienced online managers on growing revenue,
audience and profitability while protecting the core print product. Topics will
include:

•
training overview;

• pricing
display and liner upsells;

•
developing rate cards;

• finding
national revenue;

•
generating print and classified subscriptions from your Web site;

•
marketing your site with little or no money; and

•
allocating staff effectively.

Participants
also will be the first to see the top-line results of the VPA’s business survey
of non-daily online newspapers in Virginia. After lunch, there will be an
optional consultation session with discussions of actual problems and
solutions.

• Oct.
29: Webmaster Technology Training (9 a.m. to Noon) style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>

This
workshop targets newspaper staff with multiple Web site responsibilities. Learn
Webmaster basics – tools, rules and technology that save you time and
improve site performance. Topics will include:

• content
management systems;

• site
optimization to increase audience and readership;

•
Webmaster tools – free, simple and easy to use applications that can
increase audience and revenue, help promote the site, and guide your through
solving site problems;

• search
engine optimization; and

•
introduction to PHP and MySQL – the technology that fuels most Web sites.
Learn how to build your own databases.

To view
all of the Bateman sessions for 2009-10 and to register, go to href="http://www.vpa.net/index.php/education/article/13646/">the Web site style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>. E-mail registration also is
available by contacting Kim Woodward style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>.

October
brings ‘Ethical Standard’ training to VPA

The
American Press Institute’s “Upholding Ethical Standards” will be held from 10
a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 9 at VPA Headquarters in Glen Allen.

The
session will be led by Steve Buttry, editor of The Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette.
It will focus on ethical issues related to such aspects of digital journalism
as online comments and discussions, audio/visual journalism, blogging,
accuracy, breaking news coverage, links, databases, revenue generation and
transparency.

Cost is
$70 for VPA members and $100 for nonmembers, and lunch is included. VPA has a
special 2-for-1 attendance offer — members who pay for one attendee can
send a second at no cost. Deadline to register is Oct. 1.

For more
information about the session and to register, go to href="http://www.vpa.net/index.php/education/article/10024/">the Web page style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>.

E-mail
registrations may be sent to Kim Woodward style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>.

Next
SNPA Webinar series looks at online sales

The href="http://www.newspaperwebinars.com/#August26">next series of four Webinars style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> co-sponsored by the Virginia Press
Association and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association will examine
online sales. Registration for the series will open Sept. 16.

The
schedule is as follows:

• Sept.
30, 2 p.m. — The Consultative Sale: Increase Online Revenue — style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>The consultative sales method
examines best practices gleaned from thousands of successful local Interactive
media operations around the country tracked by Borrell Associates. In this
webinar, you’ll receive ideas, information and tactics that will help you and
your staff close more sales while positioning the account executive as an
expert in the online ad field.

• Oct.
14, 2 p.m. — Tackling the Yellow Pages — style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>The directory industry has been the
most aggressive of all local media, garnering an estimated 15-percent share of
its total revenues from digital advertising this year. It also has trained
approximately 80 percent of its on-the-ground sales force – totaling more
than 13,000 salespeople – to sell interactive products, going
head-to-head with trained newspaper reps also selling online advertising. So
how can you sell against this large force?

• Oct.
28, 2 p.m. — Small Businesses: The Final Frontier for Online — style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Are small- and medium-sized business
owners changing their spending habits? Are they abandoning traditional media
for the Internet? Is the recession a tipping point for their ad spends?

• Nov.
11, 2 p.m. — Social Networking: The New Content Model style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>
— Online social
networking has encouraged new ways for Internet users to communicate and share
information. Social networking Web sites are continuing to grow in popularity
and millions use them every day. As the popularity increases, so do the new
uses for technology. The business model has been elusive. Right now, most
social networks work under an autonomous business model vs. the traditional
supplier and consumer model. The Webinar will examine what is working, what
isn’t and where things are headed.

style="mso-spacerun: yes"> SNPA has allowed VPA members to purchase
a spot in the Webinars at SNPA member rates. The cost to take part in all four
Webinars is $250 per computer connection. Individual Webinars are $75 each per
connection.

For more information about the Webinars, go to the href="http://www.newspaperwebinars.com/">Webinar home page style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>.

Next
Inland Webinars: customer service, employee morale and motivation

Upcoming
Inland Press Association Webinars will focus on customer-service management and
employee motivation.

• Sept.
10, 11:30 a.m. EDT — “ href="http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=740391">Important
Lessons from Daily Newspapers That Have Grown Revenue.” style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>The Kubas Group of Toronto will
present lessons from North American daily newspapers that have successfully
grown ad revenues. Two case studies will be presented. You’ll learn why
cost-cutting is not the way to succeed and what legacy sales and business
practices to avoid and how these practices limit future ad revenues. The
seminar will be led by Chris Kubas, vice president of The Kubas Group.

• Sept.
15, 2 p.m. EDT — href="http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=740395">“Creating
a Motivational Environment for Your Employees.” style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Now more than ever, organizations
pay a heavy price when employees lack motivation. Participants will explore the
crux of motivation management. Employees are motivated by what they believe is
going to happen, not by what managers promise will happen. Participants will learn
to motivate employees by creating the three conditions required for effective
motivation: confidence, trust, satisfaction and providing an environment that
reinforces those conditions. Bill Osborne, president of The People Business in
Arnold, Md., will lead the Webinar.

Inland is
extending its member rates for all webinars and workshops to all VPA members.
When VPA members register for the Webinars, they will pay the Inland fee of $75
per session instead of the $125 non-member rate.

Comments
on bylaws changes still are being accepted

The VPA
Board of Directors wants member input on a package of proposed bylaws changes,
including one change that would establish a membership category for online-only
publications.

At its July
10 meeting, the board tentatively advanced the proposals, which also include
the creation of categories for educational institution (which currently are in
the Associate membership category), and individual and honorary life
memberships (which currently are in the Sustaining membership category); a
removal of the restriction on Affiliate members to serve on committees; and a
change in the membership admissions policy. But before the board makes the
final recommendation, it wants VPA members to comment on the proposals.

VPA has set
up href="http://www.vpa.net/index.php/membership/article/bylaws-proposal093009/">a
page on its Web site that allows members to see all the proposed changes and make comments
in the space provided. Comments will be accepted through Sept. 30, and the
board will make its decision at its Oct. 23 meeting. The board’s final
recommendation then will come up for membership approval at next March’s Annual
Meeting in Roanoke.